# #61 Black Knight 2000 - The Classic Pinball Podcast

**Source:** The Classic Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-09-13  
**Duration:** 48m 47s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/george272/episodes/61-Black-Knight-2000---The-Classic-Pinball-Podcast-e16smb4

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## Analysis

George and Dave from The Classic Pinball Podcast review Black Knight 2000, a 1989 Williams System 11B game by Steve Ritchie. The episode includes industry gossip (Medusa pricing discrepancies, Thunder Turds/Spinal Tap announcement, Fathom sourcing issues), discussion of LED replacement products (Yopsicles) and playfield reproductions (Merco), and extensive gameplay commentary on BK2K's two-level playfield, multiball modes, Magna Save, and sound design. Dave has restored a Cambridge apartment machine and discusses his restoration philosophy and service business demands.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] A restored Medusa machine sold for around $2,500 at Allentown, double the price George sold his for (~$1,400) five years prior — _George and Dave discussing secondary market pricing; George notes uncertainty about 'rigmarole' around actual sale price_
- [HIGH] David Yop's Yopsicles are LED replacements for older 4744 bulbs; modern Stern and Jersey Jack games already use similar LED technology as standard — _Dave discussing Yopsicles specifications and modern manufacturer adoption; distinction between GI (above playfield) vs feature lights (below playfield)_
- [MEDIUM] Fathom production is experiencing sourcing problems and delayed shipments — _George cites 'rumor mill' statement from fan Grant in Australia regarding Fathom delivery delays_
- [HIGH] Merco playfield reproductions (Quicksilver, 8-Ball Deluxe, Spectrum, Nine Ball) incorporated extensive Pinside community feedback to correct graphics, artwork, and color matching — _George describing multi-week Pinside discussion process; Dave confirming quality iteration_
- [HIGH] Black Knight 2000 production was 5,700 units; System 11B games (1987-1990) ranged from 1,200 (Bad Cats) to 9,400 (Cyclone); original Black Knight produced 15,000 units in 1980-ish — _George and Dave discussing production numbers; Dave provides context on broader System 11B lineup_
- [HIGH] Stern home pinball games are now pre-selling faster than demand can be met; distributors report stock is immediately spoken for upon arrival — _George noting Ultraman and Halloween pre-sold before public saw them; Dave confirming booked service calls through September_
- [MEDIUM] A company at Allentown was observed finding restored machines, paying restorers for their work, stripping badges/custom work, and drop-shipping with 'a couple grand' markup while misrepresenting themselves as the restorer — _Dave discussing Roller Coaster Tycoon experience; notes 'people getting wise to it' in collector community; describes lack of attention to detail_
- [HIGH] Black Knight 2000 features Steve Ritchie's voice as the Black Knight; designer Steve Ritchie wrote a personal note in the operating manual — _Dave describing gameplay experience; George and Dave discussing credits and manual insert_
- [HIGH] Black Knight 2000 has two-level playfield with lift-up hood design for easier servicing than original BK; includes Magna Save right outlane, plastic ramp, multiple multiball modes (2-ball, 3-ball, 3-ball Time Wizard) — _Dave providing mechanical and gameplay overview; confirmed during extended gameplay sequences_
- [HIGH] Dave is booking service calls through September due to high demand for game repairs and maintenance — _Dave explicitly stating 'booked up pretty much all through September' and receiving constant inquiries_

### Notable Quotes

> "They represent that they are actually doing the restoration, which is kind of weird. People are kind of getting wise to it, especially in the collector community."
> — **Dave**, ~20:45
> _Industry commentary on deceptive practices by some vendors; signals growing scrutiny in collector market_

> "As soon as it comes in, it's already spoken for, and it's out the door. Ultraman and Halloween pre-sold before anybody even saw the game."
> — **George**, ~24:30
> _Confirms extreme demand and shortage for modern Stern home games; supply constraint signal_

> "I'm booked up pretty much all through September at this point. We're just starting September. And I keep getting tons of calls and emails about 'Hey, you have anything for sale?'"
> — **Dave**, ~25:00
> _Demonstrates service industry capacity constraints and customer demand pressure_

> "It's a fine line between stupid and clever."
> — **George**, ~35:15
> _Quoting Spinal Tap movie during discussion of Thunder Turds/Spinal Tap pinball game announcement_

> "Steve Ritchie wrote a whole little thing in the operating manual, a little insert that said, 'enjoy my game, a lot of fun making it.'"
> — **Dave**, ~42:30
> _Designer commentary and personal touch in classic game; reflects design philosophy era_

> "I almost hate to sell it. This is a very fast game."
> — **Dave**, ~68:00
> _Restorer's personal investment in machine quality; hint at emotional attachment to craft work_

> "I like the slow decay of incandescent here and there. So it's like a hybrid effect."
> — **Dave**, ~62:30
> _Restoration philosophy balancing LED and incandescent lighting for aesthetic effect_

> "I don't even know if I can call it a level shifter game. I don't know what to call this thing."
> — **George**, ~76:00
> _Classification ambiguity for hybrid playfield design; reflects ongoing industry discussion on game taxonomy_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary Williams designer; designer of Black Knight 2000, original Black Knight, High Speed; provided voice for Black Knight character |
| George | person | Co-host of The Classic Pinball Podcast; leads game reviews, industry commentary, and analysis |
| Dave | person | Co-host of The Classic Pinball Podcast; professional pinball machine restorer; service technician with high current demand |
| Bruce Nightingale | person | Host of Slam Tilt podcast; nearly won $750 Fathom machine at Allentown; discussed Medusa pricing |
| Ryan McQuaid | person | Competitive player; brought restored Black Knight 2000 to Pintastic 2 years ago; featured in earlier podcast episodes |
| David Yop | person | Product developer; created Yopsicles LED replacement product for older pinball bulbs (4744 standard) |
| Grant | person | Podcast fan from Australia; provided Fathom sourcing information to hosts |
| Merco | company | Playfield reproduction manufacturer; produces Quicksilver, 8-Ball Deluxe, Spectrum, and Nine Ball reproduction playfields; engaged Pinside community for accuracy feedback |
| Joe Juice Jr. | person | Pinball designer/mechanic; credited on Black Knight 2000 mechanics; famous for Quicksilver design |
| Doug Watson | person | Artist; credited for Black Knight 2000 artwork |
| Dan Ford | person | Sound designer; credited on Black Knight 2000 sound package |
| Brian Schmidt | person | Sound designer; credited on Black Knight 2000 sound package |
| Bill Davis | person | Playfield restoration service; Dave references as potential service option for Quicksilver playfields |
| Williams | company | Classic pinball manufacturer; produced Black Knight 2000 on System 11B platform (1987-1990); produced original Black Knight (1980) |
| Stern Pinball | company | Modern pinball manufacturer; producing home collector games (Ultraman, Halloween, Star Wars Home Edition); using LED technology adoption discussed |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Modern pinball manufacturer; uses LED technology similar to Yopsicles standard |
| Black Knight 2000 | game | 1989 Williams System 11B game; 5,700 units produced; features two-level playfield, Magna Save, multiple multiballs, Steve Ritchie design; subject of podcast review |
| Original Black Knight | game | 1980 Williams pinball machine; produced 15,000 units; predecessor to Black Knight 2000; earlier podcast episode covered |
| High Speed | game | Steve Ritchie designed game; covered in recent Classic Pinball Podcast episode |
| Fathom | game | Pinball machine with reported sourcing/production delays; $750 example at Allentown; discussed in Slam Tilt podcast |
| Spinal Tap | game | Upcoming game announced by Thunder Turds/Home Pin; based on Spinal Tap comedy band/movie |
| Roller Coaster Tycoon | game | Pinball machine installed by podcast; example of dropship restoration practice; low listener engagement episode |
| Quicksilver | game | Williams pinball; Merco reproduced playfield; Joe Juice Jr. designed; production history discussed |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Black Knight 2000 machine review and mechanics, Secondary market pricing dynamics and Medusa sale, LED lighting products and aftermarket upgrades (Yopsicles), Playfield reproduction quality and Pinside community feedback, Stern home pinball demand and supply constraints, Deceptive vendor practices in collector market
- **Secondary:** Service technician capacity and business demand, Fathom sourcing and production delays, Spinal Tap game announcement (Thunder Turds project), System 11B production history and manufacturing context

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Hosts are enthusiastic about BK2K gameplay and Dave's restoration work. However, underlying concerns surface: skepticism about market practices (dropship fraud), production/supply issues (Fathom), and industry consolidation pressures. Tone shifts from celebratory (game quality, demand for repairs) to critical (vendor deception, game difficulty) to analytical (production comparisons, design classification).

### Signals

- **[market_signal]** Medusa secondary market price inflation; unit sold for ~$2,500 vs George's ~$1,400 sale five years prior (78% increase); uncertainty around actual sale price suggests opacity in transactions (confidence: medium) — George noting 'rigmarole' about what the 'real price was'; Dave confirming price inflation but acknowledging he didn't follow details closely
- **[technology_signal]** Yopsicles LED replacements gaining traction; modern manufacturers (Stern, JJP) already standardized on similar LED technology for feature lighting, distinguishing from GI (general illumination) lights (confidence: high) — Dave confirming modern Stern/JJP using LED standard; Yopsicles positioned as cost-effective retrofit; version 2/3 will include resistor pre-installed
- **[product_concern]** Fathom experiencing documented sourcing/production problems; timeline for availability uncertain (confidence: medium) — George citing 'rumor mill states they're having problems sourcing product'; framed as normalized industry issue ('welcome to the club')
- **[community_signal]** Merco playfield reproductions underwent iterative refinement based on Pinside community crowdsourced feedback; multi-week discussion process resulted in improved color match and graphics accuracy (confidence: high) — George describing detailed community vetting process; Dave confirming final product achieved acceptable fidelity to originals
- **[market_signal]** Stern home pinball games experiencing severe supply shortage; Ultraman and Halloween pre-sold before public demonstration; distributors report immediate sell-through upon arrival (confidence: high) — George: 'They have nothing on the shelf to sell. As soon as it comes in, it's already spoken for'; Dave confirming September service call bookings due to high demand; no inventory availability for casual buyers
- **[industry_signal]** Vendor dropshipping model identified: companies find externally restored machines, pay restorers, strip custom work/badges, resell with markup (up to $2K+) while misrepresenting themselves as restorers; collector community awareness increasing (confidence: medium) — Dave describing Roller Coaster Tycoon experience; notes company not disclosing location service model; observes 'people kind of getting wise to it, especially in the collector community'
- **[operational_signal]** Dave's restoration/service business at full capacity through September; sustained high demand for repairs and maintenance; continuous inquiries about machine availability (confidence: high) — Dave: 'booked up pretty much all through September at this point...tons of calls and emails about Hey you have anything for sale?'; George noting season hasn't peaked yet ('We're not even in winter yet')
- **[product_strategy]** Stern has abandoned home pinball price-point rationale; pricing continues to rise despite premium positioning; demand appears inelastic, justifying higher MSRPs (confidence: high) — George: 'They don't care about the price point anymore. They just keep raising the price because of the demand'; earlier positioning as value play (2 years ago) contradicted by current market reality
- **[restoration_signal]** Modern restoration practices include LED/lighting customization (warm red GI, clear red pop bumper caps with internal LED glow); hybrid incandescent/LED approaches for visual effect; reflects service technician design philosophy (confidence: high) — Dave describing BK2K customizations: warm red LEDs upstairs, clear red bumper caps, hybrid incandescent/LED balance for 'slow decay' aesthetic effect
- **[design_philosophy]** Black Knight 2000 defies traditional level-shifter vs ramp taxonomy; George notes classification uncertainty despite hybrid design (level shifter with ramp elements) (confidence: medium) — George: 'I don't even know if I can call it a level shifter game. I don't know what to call this thing'; discussion of level-shifter archetype (Flash Gordon, Lightning) vs BK2K's mixed mechanics
- **[historical_signal]** Black Knight 2000 production (5,700 units) represents 62% decline from original BK (15,000 units); contextualized within video game arcade explosion and home console adoption (1980-1989) (confidence: high) — George noting production decline; Dave explaining broader System 11B context (1987-1990) with range 1,200-9,400 units; industry transition from arcade to home gaming
- **[announcement]** Thunder Turds/Home Pin announced new pinball game: Spinal Tap, based on classic comedy film; targeting humorous/novelty market segment (confidence: high) — George describing Spinal Tap announcement as item on podcast agenda; discussion of movie quotes and game design potential; departure from Thunder Turds' typical transformer/parts business

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## Transcript

 Black Knight On the wings of a life that I'm free Free to be me When the night is out And I'm waiting for home Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. I'm George and I'm joined by my co-host Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George. Folks, we're going to get right into it today. I've got seven items on the sheet, and I'm going to start with number one, a little bit of a reprise from Allentown. I know some of you listen to other podcasts, the Slam Tilt podcast with Bruce Nightingale, lamenting about how close he was to that $750 fathom. he was literally feet away and i'll use a very polite word was lamenting about how he missed out i want to ask you a question dave they also talked about a medusa hear anything about that one i did see medusa near the tournament section and uh but i didn't really hear a lot about it but i know heard something that it was a really good price that someone got for it it was in pretty nice shape too that's what bruce was saying i heard the same but no prices disclosed then i heard there was some shenanigans saying no that wasn't the real price it was actually uh went for more than that so there's some kind of uh uh rigmarole going on about that about what the real price was in that game did i tell you that i saw the medusa i sold three years ago five years ago i remember that game i saw it for almost double what i sold it for not surprising so i i didn't see it for sale recently so i'm guessing it went he wanted i sold it i think for 1400 bucks not quite double 2500 they were looking for it and the reason i could tell is it had the crack in the back of the cabinet on the left hand side that was a uh a mark special Ah, yes. He ate a lot of Medusa's back in the time. I think he ate three of them at one time. Well, I bought one of them. I think I bought two of them. Number two. Let's talk about Yopsicles. Yopsicles, yes. What did you think? They're very tasty. I like the banana the best. Did you know I was going to ask you about those? No, I didn't. seriously um david yop i think is his name is producing an led light replacement for old 47 44 bulbs looked like a pretty interesting product although i believe if i read it correctly you need to have one of the newer light boards in order to support it did i read that right not necessarily Okay. So you he has holes in the board already that you can his version one you can mount your own I think it's a 470 ohm resistor or Somewhere in there that'll take care of that flicker. So you do have to add something to the problem Well version one but version two and three know he's gonna put those in there anywhere for you. Okay So so that's gonna be all baked in the mix all that's dry for my speed and the thing this Where you probably get this idea from is because the modern Sterns all are using these anyway. I think even the Jersey Jack stuff, I think they're all using these things, their own version of these things, the Yopsicles. Because that's what they use for LEDs in those games. The older games, you're buying a socket, putting a light in it, and doing this whole thing. And Yopsicles are a lot more cost effective. I think he's on to something. Well, I think so. If you're going to put feature light LEDs in, yes. But he said they're not made to put in for GI. Now, why would that be the case? Because the GI sits above the play field. These sit below the play field. They're like on the same plane. They sit down real low on the play field underneath, so they don't stick up high. So they can shoot through a lens, but a GI light sits above the play field up high. So it lights up the light shields and so forth. Gotcha. So on an older Bally or Stern game, say you've got slingshots, those are more up into the playfield piece or above. Yep. Therefore, this would be like shooting, the Yopsicle would be like shooting it through a hole. Right, like a flashlight through a hole. And even the modern Sterns, I believe, still use a socket and a LED lamp that goes in the socket for the GI, and they use the obstacle kind of thing for their features. Okay. I thought it was a cool product, and actually I was glad that you saw it and replied to me rather than me springing it on you, so you had a little bit of time to look at it. Here we go. Home pin. Did you hear this one? No. Tell me this one, George. I'm not quite sure. Okay, so you know we've talked about Thunder Turds before. and we talked about their replacement transformer with rectifier board remember we talked about that and we were like oh they do a whole an all in one product which I thought was neat well guess what they're coming out with a new game see if you like the product or not Thunder Turds 2 no that's a shame Spinal Tap oh ok well that might have some legs so you like Spinal Tap Yeah, I can see there's a lot of humor in that. Yeah, that could probably work. So other than the obvious humor piece. Very delicate. It's a bit of a departure from the kind of thing you normally play. What do you call this? This piece is called Lick My Laugh Pump. This is the loudest, most explosive band in heavy metal history. This is Spinal Tap It's a fine line between stupid and clever What other line in the movie is one that you're familiar with? I couldn't come up with one Although I like the movie These go to 11 That's the famous line Right Besides that Right Going through the airport and he has a Oh no no I know the other famous line There aren't a lot of colleges in Boston Yes, that's another one. That's one of my favorites. Okay, so they're coming out with a game. Number four. I call this, Here, fathom, fathom. Here, fathom, fathom. Where are you, boy? Come on, boy. Come on. Where is he? I posed the question to our fan, Grant, in Australia, and he said, rumor mill states that they're having problems sourcing product well welcome to the club shocking so who knows when that's going to come out but um i'm still going to troll out there and say hey if you're going to get one of these games somewhere in new Robert Englunds we want to come out we'll put you on our podcast and we'll play the game number five everybody's kicking up dust on Mirco again, you know, the playfield manufacturer. And I wanted to ask you, did you buy a Quicksilver playfield from him? I bought two of them. Yep. Have we talked about this before? Well, we talked about, you know, the peeling up thing and people with, it got really sticking down. So yours are good. Well, they're good because I haven't installed them yet. They're still in their box. It's still hanging out. Maybe they're going to be cured. How long Have you had them? About a year anyway. Okay. So you have no plans on sending those off to Bill Davis or doing something else with them? No, just going to install them. Okay. Okay. I didn't think we had ever talked about it. They also have three other games that I thought were interesting that you might know about as well. They do an 8-ball deluxe, they do a spectrum, and they do a nine ball play field. I saw the nine ball and I'm intrigued with that one. I have a couple nine balls that have really nice playfields, but I wouldn't mind snagging one or two of those as well. Now, was that reproduced by classic playfields? No. Huh. No, just Mirco doing them. And they actually did a lot of feedback with the Pinside community. They put them out there, a couple people with a fine-tooth comb. no this isn't right this writing isn't correct this artwork isn't is not captured right blah blah back and forth back and forth back and forth several over several days or weeks finally they came up with something the end product was like well can't really find too much wrong with this now it looks pretty close to the original um in color match and in graphics and that kind of thing so i waited for a while to see the end result after all the you know discussion back and forth so you know i could i could definitely be a buyer at least for one of them anyway i didn't go back and i just thought of it we did several well one episode on quicksilver and it's actually in our top five i'm wondering if we talked about this but i've been going through some of our older episodes and we had talked about this is item number six we had talked about the star wars home edition that you did some repairs on and i kind of owe you apology but not really i took the the stand of oh you know don't rank on stern you know they're trying to bring you know the price point of a pinball down to home and you know trying to chat it up and saying hey how bad of thing is it that you've got another Star Wars pin and you were the total opposite. You took the stand of, hey, you know, for a couple thousand dollars more, I know you're smiling right now because of what happened in our last episode. So you had the, what I would consider the right side of the coin. And I certainly did not have the correct side of the coin. I had the real world experience with working on one. So I really got under the hood and checked it out. I want to talk little bit further about it because if you now look at the pinball landscape and this happened two years ago this is in one of our earlier shows if you look at what Stern is now seeing with the home collector market two years later quite frankly they don care about the price point anymore They just keep raising the price because of the demand They can physically keep up with the amount of orders And if you listen to some of the distributors out there, they have nothing on the shelf to sell. As soon as it comes in, it's already spoken for, and it's out the door. And we've had, we talked about it in the last episodes, Ultraman and Halloween. pre-sold before anybody even saw the game. So a good time to be in pinball, a good time for you. I'm sure you're seeing more and more of these games up for repair. And you had talked about us getting together today because the next couple weeks you're going to be out doing service calls because there's such a demand for it. Yeah, I'm booked up pretty much all through September at this point. We're just starting September. and I keep getting tons of calls and emails about, hey, you have anything for sale? What do you have for sale? What do you have for sale? And yeah, just tons of demand. We're not even in winter yet. Right. Well, listen to Dave's commercial. You can hear what games he's got for sale. So this brings me to item number seven, our last item. In episode two, I went back and listened to Ryan McQuaid talk about one of the games we're going to review today, which is Black Knight 2000. I suggest you go back and listen. It's only about a seven-minute passage. It's the beginning of the show. He was a triple winner that day. And the other two games that he had were games that we've reviewed. he did a playboy bally playboy from 78 he also did roller coaster tycoon yeah which hey folks i get it it's not the greatest the games and that's certainly represented by some of the numbers we've gotten as far as listens you listened at first and then all it just dropped off a cliff but i suggest you go back and listen to episode two because ryan had a very unique feature on that game. I'm not going to spoil it. Go back and listen. That concludes the sheet today, Dave, unless there's something you want to comment on those seven items, we'll move along to Black Night 2000. Well, I won't say the people that sold that Rollercoaster Tycoon that we installed up north there. The company that does that, I found some stuff about, there was a lot of chatter at Allentown about the company. I guess what they do, I'm not naming names here, is they will find a restored machine out there, pay the person to restore the money they want for the game, tell the person to restore the game, take all your stuff off the game, all your badges and whatever, and then they basically drop ship the game to their client, add whatever, a couple grand onto it, and they make their money that way. So they're a location service. Yeah, but they're not saying they're a location service. They're representing that they are actually doing the rest of it, which is kind of weird. So people are kind of getting wise to it, especially in the collector community, getting wise to it. And it kind of makes sense when I worked at Roller Coaster Tycoon up north that things were, it was nice shape, but things weren't quite right. There were a couple things that were off that wasn't quite, you know, attention to detail wasn't all the way there. It wasn't pre-flighted like I would do. I pre-flight something before I deliver something and make sure it's all good to go before it lands in the person's game room. Dave, let's do a little bit of exploration with Black Knight 2000. Obviously, most people know that it's a Steve Ritchie game. if you've been following our podcast for any length of time we've done two other games by him uh most recently high speed but almost a year ago the original black knight let's let's talk for a quick minute about where i first played it Ryan McQuaid you heard me talk about this earlier brought a beautiful example to Pintastic two years ago. Great looking game, fun to play, but I really don't recall it. So why don't you give us a once over of the game and in a little bit we'll play a game or two. You're telling me it's a fast game, so if it's anything like the other game, we'll be through those games quite quickly. Yeah, this game definitely keeps you on your toes. It's like you're jousting with the Black Knight. He taunts you all the time, laughs at you. And it actually is Steve Ritchie's voice as the Black Knight. They probably adjusted his voice down a little bit to make him sound a little more deep, deep voice kind of deal. It also helps that it put a subwoofer on this game, so it really has an extra low end it needs. It's a lot of fun. It's a two-level play field. and this is, Steve Richard wrote a whole little thing in the operating manual, a little insert that said, enjoy my game, a lot of fun making it. The top playfield actually lifts up almost like the hood of a car to work on underneath, and that's very easy to work on compared to the original Black Knight, which was tougher to work on. Things were crammed in there. You couldn't really use screws and so forth to take it apart. This one here just kind of lifted out of there. It has a little prop rod, much easier to service. didn't he do didn't he do the voice in the original game that's a good question George I think he did I think he probably did we can look that up I know Doug Watson did the art on it mechanics by Joe Juice Jr. who also did Quicksilver Joe Juice is very famous for doing Quicksilver and the really addictive nature of the sound package in the game is pretty, it's really good. Once you play it for a couple minutes, that song just stays in your head afterwards. I believe, I think it's Chris Grainer. It definitely sounds like Chris Grainer did it. I'm looking for, no, actually no, it says sound by Dan Forden and Brian Schmidt, but I swear it has a Chris Grainer sound to it, but maybe influenced, I don't know. 5,700 units, which at first I thought was kind of, well, that sounds like kind of low production, but then I started looking at all the System 11Bs. So Williams had System 11, 11A, 11B, 11C, and they really hit out of the park when they came to 11B. The 11B, now these are all like the same board. There's one big giant board back there, but they have different iterations of that. they improved and improved and improved. So 11B started in 87 and ended in 1990. It started with big guns, ended with whirlwind. And like I said, I thought the production amount of games made by Black Knight 2000, being like 5,700, was kind of low. But not really, because the lowest was Transport of the Rescue in 89, only 8.59. And then other ones are like 1,200, 2,500 for Bad Cats. Taxi was not too much either Taxi was $7,300 The highest was Cyclone at $9,400 Worldwim was $7,300 So when you're in the $5,000s You're right kind of in the middle of production Right, but in comparison to the original Black Knight You went from 15,000 games down to 5,700 Yes, different times, right? 1980-ish to 1989 So a lot happened in those nine years, and we know it's obviously the explosion of upright arcades and people moving more towards the video games. And the home console, too. People are bringing it back home and playing Beavis at home. Correct. Here's my biggest question with this game. What's the carryover from the original Black Knight to Black Knight 2000? The biggest thing is a Magna Save on the right out lane. So is this game a level shifter game, or is this a ramp game? George, George with the questions. I would say, well, this would be a little more of a hybrid. So it's definitely level shifter, but it is a little rampy in that when that ball leaves the upper play field, it does feed your right flipper. So there's a habit trail? There are a couple habit trails in this game. And there's one plastic ramp. It actually has a plastic ramp. We're not standing in front of it, folks, so forgive me, and I didn't bring the picture up. But I always do this to Dave because we're trying to make the definition of what is a level shifter game and what's a ramp game. And in previous episodes, we've talked about level shifters being games like Flash Gordon and Vector. Lightning. Okay. So those are definitely level shifter games. This sounds like a little bit of a hybrid, but we'll come back to it while we're playing. And this game does have a plastic ramp, so hence, there's your ramp right there. Okay. Are you familiar with the tagline or the marketing slogan for this particular game? I am not George. He rides again. Ah, yes. And also, he's back in Born to Run and Built to Last. Mm-hmm. Oh, goody. Yeah, I don't know. I would have fired the marketing team. Anything else you want to add to... Oh, let's see. What else with this game? We get Steve Ritchie. It's a very fun game. I like playing it, and actually I've played a bunch of them at different shows, and they were decent, and they were nice restorations. But after restoring this one and tweaking it out and putting all warm comments everywhere on the GI, I did warm red comments all upstairs in the upper play field. It has a nice glowing effect. I also took the pop-upper caps, the whole pop-upper assembly, took them all out. So usually stock-wise, it's a yellow skirt, white body, clear red cap. I went with all red. So clear red skirt, clear red body, clear red cap, and a red LED inside it. So it has a whole little glowing effect. You're in a different world upstairs than downstairs. That's what I want. I forgot to ask. Where did the game come from? It came from an apartment in Cambridge about maybe six, seven years ago. Oh, so you've had this one for a while. I've had it for a while. It was all back in the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse, rolled back there. So where's it going? It's going to be going to, I believe, Alston, right near Cambridge again. It came from Cambridge, going back to Cambridge. So it left the city, and it's coming back to the city. Back to the city. Okay. Okay. Anything I should have asked you about this game that I didn't ask you about it? Well, I know it has a two-ball multiball and a three-ball multiball. Well, actually it has three different multi-balls. And a three-ball time wizard mode? Yep. Okay. How about... Hang on. Before you move forward... Go ahead, George. Is the multiball tied to the multiplier? No Not that I know of You sure I guess I not sure George You tell me I not No I mean if you get a multi you not like You know I ask the tough questions. I know it's rhetorical or not. No. No. It's not like Fathom where you get two ball, multiball, two times play field. No. It's more like when multiball is out, you can get jackpots and so forth. You get your jackpot stuff. I mean, a lot of timed out things, a lot of hurry ups in this game. Steve Ritchie liked his hurry ups, I think. So there's a timer mode on a lot of these tasks, I would guess? Yeah, so when you spell, oh, now it's going to test me. I think when you spell something, you spell war. War. Yeah, it'll say, you know, you can do it, you can do it, and you have to shoot the left ramp going up to the play field in a certain amount of time. and that will get you some points. Now, I just finished this game. I've only play tested a little bit just yesterday, so it's freshly restored, so I haven't really gone through all the, you know, heavy lifting of everything this thing does, but what it has done so far, I'm pretty impressed with the game and it's pretty deep, you know, for its time. It also has, just like 8-Ball Deluxe and Super Bowl Mania, it has a progressive jackpot thing, King's Ransom. It spells ransom in the backbox, the back glass. Oh, so this is another Predator game in the arcade. You're watching for the letters to get to R-A-N-S-O. Yep. And wait for the person to walk away so you can get the M and get the free games. Exactly. Okay. Okay, I like that feature. I always thought that was a cool feature in a game. And again, so I think you win. We're going to find out for sure, but I'm pretty sure you either win games with that King Ransom or you get a whole bunch of points or something. You get some kind of jackpot thing, meaning either free games or some big payoff with Ransom, but it's a carryover feature that's a Ransom. It's a King's Ransom, so it's worth something. Well, why don't we conclude and go off to the downstairs hideaway and play a couple games. And you'll listen for the Stephanie Rogers and the Glow Van Vlack voices of the Choir of Angels in this game. The what? The Choir of Angels, George. You'll see what we're talking about. Wait a second. Am I going to hear like opera music or something in this game? You're going to hear like a glowing effect of like... No. Yeah. Okay. It's glorious. Now you got me. Okay, you got the hook in me. Let's go down and see this. All right, George, let's go do that. Or hear it. Let's do that, shall we? Well, here we are one more time down in the basement standing in front of Black Knight 2000. This is a very, very pretty-looking game, Dave. You did a really nice job. I'm sure your customer is going to be happy. Can we get this thing going? We certainly can, George. welcome to black knight 2000 did some special mods in this one did all clear silicone rubber did warm comets on the bottom for the ga in the bottom did warm reds on the top and has a nice glowing effect it also did some leds under a couple select inserts as well but not the whole thing because i find it there's too many too many inserts have the leds it's uh I don't know. It's too much of an off and on thing. I like the slow decay of incandescent here and there. So, it's like a hybrid effect. So, let's see what the Black Knight has to say. Hello, Black Knight. I am the Black Knight. Voice of authority there. Mr. Steve Ritchie telling us that. Would you like one or two, George? I'm going to show how it's done. Or do you just want to go in cold? No, I definitely want to go cold. Okay. You want to go cold? Yeah. Go ahead. Hit it cold. Go ahead. Is there a skill shot? You're gonna shoot the ball either if you should the ball kind of medium like a 70% right 75% it's gonna land in the war lanes if you go a full plunge it's gonna come right down here where you can kind of shoot the skyway. Well let's see I've never done this before so let's see. You get an upper right flipper remember. A little harder than that. Okay. Do that again. Keep going around and around. Okay, so now I've got to figure out how to get it back up there. And you've got a Magnus save you're going to make happen if you just get the rest of the Black Knight targets down. Oh, I keep hitting rubber. That was bad. It does have a nice kickback and left. Oh, so is that the angel sound? Yeah, that's part of it. There's more of the choir of angels coming there with Von Cluck and their cluckers, I think it's called, or whatever it's called. Von Cluck and the Cluckettes. Do they go to that fast food place we talked about? I think they do. Cluck you? No, I think they're also called the Mother Cluckers. I saw the 800 number on the screen for a t-shirt. Did you ever call the 800 number? I know. We actually should call that later, George. We'll call that live on the show and see what we get. I don't have enough. It's only $14.95 back in 1989. There we go, finally. I got it in one of the... So I got, what, one letter of war? One letter of... Yes. Or win, actually. It's win. Win. The green things are win, and the yellow inserts are war. You want to win the war against the Black Knight. Oh, sugar. You're right. This is a very fast game. It's fast and furious. If you get those middle bank of drop down, you'll... And now your Magnus save is active, so... Which Magnus save? Right or left or both? The right side, and it's a little flipper above your right hand. A little flipper button. It will activate it once you get in trouble. It's going to be quick on the button. So it's a button above your flipper button. You get the power, George. You also have the lane change if you want. Oh, I do have a lane change? Yes, you do. Okay, so I just got it, right? You also want to get that drawbridge down here. There you go. Now it's going to go down. Where's the drawbridge? Right there. Yes, Scott, it's for you, George. Oh, that came... You're ramping with the best of them. You got the ramp. Nice job. Okay, that's... Up the drawbridge. That went way... Ball one locked. That went... Oh, okay. So do that again. So how do I get the ball? Well, you're going to flip another ball up there, and you're going to shoot the... Oh, I've got to lock it into that... Do it again. Okay. I'm a little... I'm just going to be over here in the Casio while you're doing that. Lane change there, too. Yeah. Missed it. There's the choir. There you go. The choir of the cluckers. Okay, so now that's going to be right up top there, right? Yes. There it is. You can do it, George. I can do it. You can do it. There, you did it. Look, you did it, George. Isn't that a song? You can do it. You can do it. I think it's Arnie saying that. No, no. Arnie and Brad. What band is that? There you go. Oh, George, he got it. He got it. So they're going to start coming out? They're all going to come slamming down here really quickly, all three at once. Oh, all three at once? It's like a roller coaster ride. You're at the top of the roller coaster. And now it's going to come down hard. You go bang, bang, bang. There you go. Oh, man. I lost two. And you lost all. The black guy's mean. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Isn't he mean? Okay. I did okay, though. You did okay. You actually did well. That's not bad for a first ball, I don't think. Looks like you've played this a few times. Extra ball lit. I like that. Why's that? That's a hurry up. So you already have that opening. I do. What do they call that? That's called the drawbridge. Oh, the drawbridge. Okay. I just have to get him. Yeah, this is a very fast game. I almost hate to sell it. No, this looks like a lot of fun. I'm glad I got the opportunity to play this. We had fun playtesting it last night. Well, that's always good. No MagnaState for me. I didn't activate it yet. Okay. Okay. Replay at 4.8 million. I got a ways to go. A couple jackpots. Okay, so I got one letter. Of win, is that? That's win, yes. And I highly recommend a subwoofer I put in this game. It's very nice on this game. Now, do you use a pulp or somebody else? I use one of those pulps. Yep. Seems to be what everybody's using. Yep. Very cost effective. does the job well. Sounds great. Oh, so your drawbridge went down right away. What did you do? I had it down from before. I already made it happen. Oh, so once you do it, it stays down? Yes. Yep, once you do it, it stays down until you start locking balls. Lightning wheel. Okay. Well, that's the second time you've lost it down the right side. I actually pressed the button in time. Oh, you had a magnet save it? I did. I hit it, but it was a little too far gone. We talked about that. Oh, extra ball. I got extra ball somehow. Oh, you do? Maybe because I got a last chance. I'm not quite sure how I got that, but I'm going to take it. Maybe I can get a multiball happening here. So how does one get the last letter in Ransom? By getting multiball, I think. Yeah, multiball will do it. Well, you're right. The sound package on this game is... It makes it. It does. Double-night challenge. All right, here we go. Okay, what is... Oh, so you've got multi-balls. I do. At least you held your multi-balls. That didn't come out right. That didn't either. Nice, George. No offense. Okay. Okay, so the drawbridge is going down. Dave's got double to multiball. I've got double secret probation. And the lightning rod. Okay, so Dave's racking up some points. Whatever that U-turn thing is. Okay, Dave's at one and a half million already. Whoa. And Dave lost one ball. He's got one ball left. And the drawbridge is going down yet again. He's up to 2.6 million. It's do or die here. Can he get over the threshold? Somewhere over the threshold. Somewhere over the threshold. Yeah, I do not like... I'm going to call this... Maniacal football. I don't even know if I can call it a level shifter game. I don't know what to call this thing. Black Knight 2000. There's a lot of pinball excitement in this game, I'll tell you. Oh, no, there's a lot of... Oh, Ransom, I got it. I got the Ransom Oh look at you Look at that King Ransom Everything lit Five times bonus You turn the twenty That lucrative Pat Extra ball lit. I mean the ransom. War equals a million. Jackpot's lit. Skyway is lit. Oh, you got everything lit. Everything is lit, it says. Look at that. It's all lit. Didn't I just say that? Except for me. I'm not lit. It's too early in the day. more and more cluckers clucking you got nine minutes alright now you got another ball oh that's a ball save? no I had another ball going oh ok King's Ransom's done ok Dave's got one ball left he's got everything lit up Those rubbers on those posts are deadly. They are. On the bottom of the play field. So did you just get a million? Oh, you're almost there, man. You're almost there. Come on. You're almost there. Go, Dave, go. It's spinning. wheel. So you got 20,000 for that spinning wheel. There we go. Magna save works. There it is. That's the first time we used it. Meow. Oh, and out she goes. Okay, so let's see. Does Dave get to 4.8 million? All right. Six loops, 14 U-turns. Yes, I got it. Extra ball too somehow. I don't know how I got an extra ball, but I'll take it. Well, did you get extra ball because you passed the threshold? I don't think so, but maybe. I didn't think I had to set it that way, but it's possible. This might be the setup of your game, George. Yeah, I'm all about high scores. Oh, almost. Not quite through the drawbridge. There we go. Not quite again. No way. Yeah, you've got to master that left-hand shot to get it back up top. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Five times bonus. You are champion. All right, I'll take that. Thank you, Steve. All right. whoops there very good high score George great and no match Dave ends up winning that one 5.5 to 690,000 so Dave is the grand champion And this concludes yet another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. See you in the pinball future. And that was my brother, George. Say goodnight, George. Hey, quiet down. Say goodnight, George. Goodnight, George. See you later, folks. No way. All this feature. Give me your money. Give me your money. Give me your money. Give me your money. All right, George. What do you think? There's a number to call for a Black Knight t-shirt. There's a sticker on the backboard that says it's only $14.95 and they even advertise it on the LED display. Let's call it up. I'm already ahead of you. I want a Black Knight t-shirt. I'm thinking it's going to be a... This call may be recorded for quality assurance. All right, it's a porn number. We have a special promotion today for select callers. If you are over 50, please press 1 now. If not, press 2. They want you to press number 1. Okay, sure. Okay, here we go. Let's press 1. I want to press 3 Let's press 3 Okay shut up Not you Okay Now what Hey Hey lady What's going on Are we going to go Like overseas I think it's going to A porn site Hello Would you like A t-shirt Hello We have a Marriott Antonio Cruz Hey I don't know I think you just got a text I want my t-shirt I think I have Heavy breathing going on That's Cooper. Maybe it's Cooper. Cooper's on the line. Hit two. Hit a different number. That's it? There's nothing there? That's a big nothing burger. Oh, that was bad. Okay, you know what? Hit stop. We're going to try one more time. Try one more time. You got a text, though. Go for your text. I bet you they might have texted you something back in your number. Yeah, I just saw a text come in. Yeah, make sure it's not anything with this number. Let's see. Give me a text. Anything from... No. Anything stupid? No. Okay. Just a coinkydink. Hmm. Let's try it one more time. Dialing for t-shirts. Dialing for t-shirts. Okay, we're going to try it one more time. Let's hit the other one. I thought this was going to be a good bit. Let's hit two. So far. Okay, we're going to try that again. Let's try two. Okay. For directory assistance, press nine. Directory assistance? What the hell is... What the... Yeah, there's... What is going on? I think George just signed up for a bunch of spam. Steve. Hey, Steve. You've got to pay your bills. Steve, the number doesn't work unless you pay your bills I think Yeah, Steve didn't pay his bills So some scam company took it over So when you call us number, I think you're on some kind of spam list You're going to get all kinds of You know, your social security Your married vacation getaway And All the rest of that crap Okay, that bit didn't work But we tried though But now we took the hit for the rest of you Now you know what happened when you call our number By the way, you're welcome. Dave! Who? Dave! D-A-V-E! Yeah, Dave! Dave! Right! Dr. Dave's Pinball Restorations restores games to look and play like the first day they hit the arcade. Buy a piece of your childhood back with one of the following games in our restoration queue. If you're looking for that late model pinball machine, well, we currently have three available. A Stern NASCAR, the rare limited edition Dale Jr. with only 600 made. Bally, we have a Doctor Who and a Twilight Zone. And for your classic pinball fans, we have the following Ballys. A Kiss, Supersonic, Paragon, Skateball, Flash Gordon, Embryon, and Fireball 2. For classic Stern, we have Sea Witch, Stingray, and Nineball. For Williams, we have a Firepower, Atari, we have a Superman, Gottlieb, old school EMs, a Topscore, and a Flipperpool, and for Bally, old school electromechanicals, we have a Bally Captain Fantastic and a Bally Flip-Flop. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Very delicate. It's a bit of a departure from the kind of thing you normally play. What do you call this? Well, this piece is called Lick My Laugh Pump. This is the loudest, most explosive band in heavy metal history. This is Spinal Tap. There's such a fine line between stupid and clever. The funniest movie ever made about rock and roll. He choked on vomit. I can't prove whose vomit it was. The monumental classic. There was a stone-edge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. The makeup of your audience seems to be young boys. Oh, it's a sexual thing, really. We've got, you know, armadillos in our trousers. I mean, it's really quite frightening. No, don't. I was just pointing at it. Well, don't point. Sure, I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation. The cult phenomenon. The numbers all go to 11. Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder? Well, it's one louder, isn't it? Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? These go to eleven. This is Spinal Tap.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b284d9e2-07eb-438d-81bb-55749d39162b*